The Department of Energy has selected 11 research projects led by DOE national laboratories to receive a total of $73 million in funding to study new ways to help transition new technologies from discovery to commercialization.
DOE said Monday the teams will focus on discovery and use-inspired research to address gaps that limit the maturation of early-stage discoveries to deployable technologies.
“This research will integrate novel concepts and approaches in use-inspired basic research to address gaps or challenges that limit the ultimate transition to applied research for further development and demonstration,” said Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, director of the DOE Office of Science.
Among the approved projects is an Argonne National Laboratory-led initiative to develop tools that combine artificial intelligence, robotics, human interfaces and digital twins to replace legacy technologies that produce isotopes for various applications.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory will also lead a project to study and model the behavior of microbes in bioreactors to determine why biomanufacturing processes that work well in the laboratory often fail during mass production.
DOE chose the projects through a competitive peer review.
